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THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[September, 



THE LANCASTER COUNTY FAIR. 

 Thf. Agi. ■cultural, Horticultural, Mechani- 

 cal, Stock and Artistic Exhibition, held at 

 McGrann's Park, during the first week in the 

 present month, was, as we predicted it would 

 be, judging from the known energy and enter- 

 prise of the gentlemen having it in hand, an 

 unquallified success— perhaps the most suc- 

 cessful of any exhibition of the kind ever held 

 within the borders of our county. We do 

 not even except any of the State Fairs held in 

 the county. Such crowds of the yeomenry of 

 the county, and such distinguished visitors as 

 graced the occasion during the entire week 

 never was known before on any similar occa- 

 sion. Neither has there heretofore been such 

 a hearty recognition of the mechanical, mer- 

 cantile and domestic producers of the county, 

 and especially of the City of Lancaster. The 

 material for a splendid exhibition exists here 

 in abundance ; all that is required is its con- 

 centration and exposition, and when this is 

 systematically inaugurated there is no danger 

 that the people will not encourage and patron- 

 ize it. It is true that some may be attracted 

 hither whose places would be more honored 

 by their absence, but, at the same time, it 

 would be impossible to draw the line of dis- 

 crimination, other than that which the laws 

 draw, based upon human conduct. It is use- 

 less to attempt a detailed description of the 

 fair, for these matters were amply reported 

 by our weekly and daily local papers ; but in 

 this issue we publish a list of the premiums 

 paid, the recipients of them, and also for 

 ■what they were paid. We do this because we 

 desire to preserve these records for future 

 reference in a more permanent form than that 

 afforded by the local dailies and weeklies. 



We trust that this may lead to a permanent 

 organization, in order that the beautiful Park 

 in which the Fair was held, may be devoted 

 henceforth to the use for which it was origi- 

 nally intended. It will be observed that the 

 premium list is quite a long one and the re- 

 wards worthily distributed with a liberal 

 hand. Let us hope that this is only the be- 

 ginning of an indefinite series. 



NATURE'S EQUILIBRIUM. 



At another place in this number of the 

 Farmer, we copy from the Daily Record, a 

 paper on the "Destruction of Small Birds," 

 which was originally published in Forrest and 

 Stream; which forcibly illustrates how the 

 " equilibrium of nature" may be destroyed by 

 human intervention, and the almost incalcu- 

 lable evil that may result therefrom. The 

 wholesale and almost promiscuous destruc- 

 tion of small birds, at the mere beck of fash- 

 ion, is one of the most stupendous and heart- 

 less factors that could possibly enter into the 

 commercial productions of a civilized coun- 

 try. Formerly the trade was conflred to for- 

 eign and gaudily plumed birds, but now it in- 

 cludes almost all kinds of birds of a small or 

 medium size, no matter how plain their 

 plumage may be ; for the chemical art has 

 been developed to give these birds any gay 

 plumage that fashion or personal taste may 

 require. It is true, that not all of these 

 birds are insectivorous in their habits, but it is 

 more than presumable that the great majority 

 of them are of that character ; in any event, 



''he great balance in the animal world, 

 through which nature's harmony is main- 

 tained, is sadly interrupted if not ultimately 

 destroyed. Insects are duplicated by millions 

 upon millions every season, and a large num- 

 ber of these little "feathered friends" feed 

 solely upon these insects, as if by a special 

 permission of Providence, in order that their 

 redundancy may not defeat the provisions 

 ti.at have been made for the subsistance of 

 the higher orders of creation, at the head of 

 which is man. 



If it must be, beautiful ornaments may be 

 artificially made out an abundance of existing 

 material, without wjurcZermf/ birds in violation 

 of the enactments of law, and the dictates of 

 common humanity, if not common sense. 

 Perhaps those that traffic in this species of 

 merchandise may be most culpable, especially 

 those who occupy the position of "middle- 

 men," because they are influenced by merely 

 mercenary motives, whilst the votaries of 

 fashion, who are the consumers, may only be 

 under the bondage of a morbid fancy. 



If fashionable society is not satisfied with 

 artificial imitations of the subjects of the 

 floral and cereal realms for personal embel- 

 lishments, but must draw upon those of the 

 animal realm, there is an abundance of ma- 

 terial that may be utilized for this purpose 

 that would be quite as appropriate, entirely 

 harmless, and freer from the infestations of 

 those noxious insects which prey upon the 

 peltries of the difi'erent species of animals. 

 During the "Great Centennial," held at 

 Fairraount Park in 1876, there were on exhi- 

 bition large collections of artificial flowers, 

 made entirely of feathers, and amongst them 

 some that were made of the feathers of do- 

 mestic fowls. 



The artist that could produce such flowers, 

 could as easily have constructed an artificial 

 bird, the proper coloration, as before inti- 

 mated, being no obstacle whatever. 



Now, in view of the immense and daily in- 

 creasing poultry trade of the United States, 

 and the whole civilized world, all of which 

 must be divested of its plumage before it can 

 be consumed, it is easily to be seen that the 

 utilizing of this plumage would furnish an 

 abundance of material for all useful and orna- 

 mental purposes; and all within the legitimate 

 sphere of local and commercial law. 



We have thus dilated, because we do not 

 believe in pulling down an existing structure, 

 without providing material for building up a 

 better one. Legal enactments may be evaded 

 or ignored; but public opinion ought to frown 

 upon this bird-slaughter to appease the cold 

 and heartless longings of a tyranical fashion. 

 The moral refinement is at least questionable, 

 that could wear the stuffed skin of a bird as 

 an ornament, knowing it to have been one of 

 those species that subsist wholly, or partially 

 on insects. 



Of course, relentless fashion allows none of 

 its votaries to exercise a thought upon the 

 subject above the most external and selfish 

 plane. We, by no means, argue that those 

 are sinners above all others, who wear these 

 bird-adornments, because in a multitude of 

 cases, they are altogether ignorant, and per- 

 haps indifferent, as to the real status of the 

 subject. 



We cannot at this time enter into a detailed 



analysisof the article to which we refer on bird- 

 destruction, but one or two points we cannot 

 " pass in silence by." On a perusal of the 

 article it will be seen that it relates to a few 

 localities in the State of New York alone. 



It appears that one man, on Long Island, 

 furnishes annually 30,000 bird skins to the 

 dealers in the city of New York, These are 

 very probably not all insectivorous birds, 

 doubtless some of them are game birds, shot 

 in season, but at the very lowest estimate two- 

 thirds of them are of the first-named charac- 

 ter. 20,000 insectivorous birds withdrawn 

 from the fields and forests of Long Island, 

 must ultimately tell upon its vegetation, un- 

 less it is compensated by the most vigorous 

 and intelligent remedial counteraction. 



In the spring of the year, when a bird 

 swallows a single caterpillar— if a female— it 

 practically " gobbles up " the possibilities of 

 from 300 to .500 noxious insects. If each bird 

 of the 20,000 was only to destroy one such 

 caterpillar during the season, the number of 

 insects prevented would amount to 6,000.000, 

 but basing our estimates on the two larger 

 factors the result would be 15,000, 000 of insects. 



But these birds at the lowest estimate 

 would average not less than one such cater- 

 pillar daily, throughout the season — say six 

 months, or in round numbers, ISO days; and 

 and we foster the possibilities of 1,086,- 

 000,000. If Long Island tolerates this bird- 

 slaughter, she deserves to be eaten up by 

 "army-worms" and "Canker-worms." The 

 bird-dealer in om locality pockets S3, 000 an- 

 nually, the taxidermist twice that amount, 

 and the milliner any amount between $20,000 

 and MO, 000, whilst the farmers and gardeners 

 suffer losses amounting to many millions, 

 through this unbalanced condition of natures 

 economy. Under these circumstances, seeing 

 a stuflfed bird mounted upon a lady's bonnet, 

 ought to create as much horror as viewing the 

 impaled skulls that embellish the domiciles of 

 the tribes, inhabiting the remote jungles of 

 Africa. But it don't, the slaughter still goes 

 it is the fashion. 



THE "SEED DRILL REGULATOR." 



If this implement accomplishes what it pro- 

 fesses, we don't see why /ort.v bushels of wheat 

 to the acre, in Lancaster county, may not be 

 as certain a result as ten bushels are now ; for 

 a more philosophical and plausible theory of 

 planting, aud one coming more practically 

 within the scope of every intelligent farmer's 

 experience, we don't think we have ever 

 read ; and we would advise every farmer to 

 send immediately to the Seed Brill Begulator 

 Company, Lemont, Centre county. Pa., and 

 obtain a copy of their pamphlet, entitled a 

 " Revolution in Wheat Culture," read it care- 

 fully, and then order a drill, or the improved 

 Regulators, and make a trial of them. 



In their octavo pamphlet of 24 pages, illus- 

 trated, they may find more on the subject of 

 wheat culture than they ever knew, and yet 

 every line of it may contain a practical doc- 

 trine that, in one way or another, may have 

 come under their observation many times, and 

 the reasons for which it would not do for 

 them to ignore in the present advancing con- 

 dition of progressive agriculture. 



All is within the acknowledged sphere of 

 vegetable physiology, and, it seems to us, 



